Communications Area deals with a number of skills, research and applications that were broadly groped under ‘Business Communication’ in conventional MBA Programs in universities. With the emergence or rather convergence of media technologies in recent decades, this area now encompasses a wide range of topics such as persuasive communication, image management, public relations, media management, corporate communication, development communication, interpersonal communication, films, social media and cyberspace management. Over the years the area has interacted with other areas like ICT and Marketing and synthesized various fields of professional communication and technical communication. In the reals of corporate activities, media channels for communication include the Internet, print media, radio, television, ambient media, and word of mouth.

Communication is essential to human, social, and economic development. At the heart of Communication for Development is participation and ownership by communities and individuals most affected by poverty and other development issues. There is a large and growing body of evidence demonstrating the value of Communication for Development. Efforts towards sustainability in any field are built on processes for communicating, learning, and sharing knowledge, engaging people in their multiple roles as individuals, and as members of communities and organizations.

At the skills level, communications area primarily focuses on internal communication as it is increasingly being accepted that in a globalized information society, it is essential that internal communications are managed properly lest a poorly crafted or mismanaged message degenerates into a situation of crisis, distrust or hostility within the corporate environment.

Against this backdrop, Communications Area at IIM Kashipur focuses on three major directions:

Skills

Impressive and successful communication is a major catalytic element for taking leadership role in business today. A properly planned, crafted and executed piece of communication whether written or oral, face to face or virtual, can increase efficiency, visibility and overall success of an organization. With increasing dependency on real-time technology mediated communication through emails, social networks, and blogs, it is crucial for any business leader today to develop an inherent penchant for speaking logically and effectively as well as write clearly and unambiguously. With the ‘skills’ focus, the area trains the participants on effective communication skills are crucial to successfully communicate within corporate environment internally as well to share information with the outside world through a variety of channels. The core courses prescribed in the first year of the PG program are: Persuasive Speaking for Leadership (Term I) and Writing for Business (Term II).

The electives offered in the communication skills area present an opportunity to the participants to hone their communication skills further in the second year. An interesting elective course is: ‘A Story to Tell: Advance Communication Skills for Successful Managers’. Corporate leaders can utilize the power of a good story to influence and motivate their teams to achieve desired goals. In an innovation driven wealth creation context, such stories can inspire organizations to accept ideas that will lead to action. Strong stories (a case for a researcher) can ultimately form part of an organizational legend or a particular corporate folklore. Great leaders across disciplines and sectors across the world have used this ‘master skill’ and invariably top CEOs today use stories to support their cases or ‘sell’ their ideas. In this elective, participants learn various kinds of story to tell for different situations from personal exploratory stories to organizational ‘vision’ stories

Public speaking is a crucial skill today for management leaders as more and more media manages the ‘public perception’ today. With hundreds of channels beaming into our bedrooms, corporate mages are planned, built (and destroyed) by sharing strong messages in public spheres. The process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners is tackled in this interesting electives called ‘Public Speaking Skills for Winners’. The participants who join this course will be taken through a series of skill enhancement from ‘presenting’ to ‘influencing’ as a strategic tool for taking leadership roles in different platforms within and outside their organizations.

Applications

The second year of PG program at IIM Kashipur allows participants to opt for a range of electives and identify tracks of special interest in tandem with other management courses. Within that scope the Communications Area offers a number of electives that build on the core skills and ‘value-add’ more specific applied communications topics such as Communication for Development (C4D), Cross-cultural Communication, Corporate Communication, Impression Management, Media Strategy for Corporates.

There is an elective course entitled ‘Cross-cultural Skills for Global Businesses’ that is delivered by communications faculty jointly with a foreign language instructor. This course is focused on specific cross-cultural managerial skills needed for the success as a management professional in global contexts. Effective use of cross cultural teams can provide a source of experience and innovative thinking to enhance the competitive position of organizations. To achieve success as a part of a cross-cultural team in global business organization, one needs to avoid cultural misunderstandings and effective managers should be culturally sensitive and promote creativity and motivation through flexible leadership traits. Some of the foreign language options that may go with the curse are Arabic, French, German and Spanish.

Research and Development

In the second year, the participants may study a research focus area where they study a new business model, industry, sector product and develop a knack for consolidating their analytical thinking in a specific industry or area of emerging importance. Within this R&D focused track, the Communications Area offers two major streams – (1) Media & Entertainment Business Management and (2) Communication for Development(C4D)

The media and entertainment industry is at an inflexion point with digital being the buzzword. Convergence between entertainment, information and telecommunication is increasingly impacting India’s overall media and entertainment industry, where Television is still the ‘King’ and ‘advertising on TV’ is still the most influential media source to impact buyers decision. The Indian Media and Entertainment Industry continues to grow at a good pace and is estimated at US$ 14.4 billion in 2010, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and research firm KPMG. The report further estimates the industry to grow to a size of US$ 16.2 billion in 2011 and to US$ 28.1 billion by 2015. FDI inflows in Information & Broadcasting sector, including print media is totaled at US$ 2.17 billion in India during Apr 2000- March 2011, according to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion statistics.

The elective on Media & Entertainment Business Management enables the participants to gather a comprehensive academic understanding of entrepreneurial leadership in all screen-based entertainment media. It helps them to develop necessary skills to succeed as executives in this rapidly evolving media marketplace. Participants, under regular projects collect, discuss and analyze data on Media and Entertainment Industry from diverse sources and present their ideas in innovative business plans in tandem with a specific situation or context. They also study various media strategies to construct and critically evaluate social media texts, their impact, and their practical use in marketing contexts.

Communication for Development(C4D) is another elective course that deals with all the different types of communication that need to take place in societies if sustainable democratic development is to occur.It encompasses access to and exchange of information, dialogue, creation of knowledge and open access to knowledge, development communication, strategic communication, participatory communication, expressive culture, media, information and communications infrastructure and technologies.C4D recognizes that communication processes often reflect power relations and aims to address this by enabling people’s capacities to understand, negotiate and take part in decision-making that affects their lives. Led by a growing interest in this sector culminating in the first World Congress on Communication for Development organized by the FAO ComDev Team, The World Bank and The Communication initiative in Rome (October 2006), IIM Kashipur is geared to develop C4D.

Development Communication is another R&D topic that has been defined, alternatively, as either a type of marketing and public opinion research used to develop effective communication, or the use of communication to promote social development. Communications Area at IIM Kashipur envisages to develop Development Communication as research focus to study the practice of systematically applying the processes, strategies and principles of communication to bring about positive social change by supporting sustainable change in development operations. In line with the institutional vision, the Communications Area aims to do this through engaging key stakeholders, establishing benchmarks, frameworks for evaluation, exploring risks and opportunities in communication with the society at large on developmental issues by mangers of project and identifying positive behavioral and social change parameters for future managers to work with.

Courses Offered By The Communications Area

COURSES

FACULTY

CORE (Credits)

Term I

Persuasive Speaking for Leadership (.5)

Prof Baharul Islam

Term II

Writing for Business (.5)

Prof Baharul Islam

ELECTIVES (Credits)

Term IV

Cross-cultural Skills for Global Businesses (1)

Prof Baharul Islam

Corporate Communication for Impression Management (1)

New Media Strategy for Corporates (1)

Term V

A Story to Tell: Advance Communication Skills for Successful Managers (1)

Development Communication for International Organizations (1)

Term VI

Media & Entertainment Business Management (.5)

Prof Baharul Islam

Public Speaking Skills for Winners (.5)

Career Prospects

The core courses as well as ‘skill’ based electives in Communications area feeds into the personality development and placement prospects of the participants in PGP program underlying all the mainstream management career. The elective course in the Communication for Development along with persuasive communication track is geared toward a career in development sector and international organizations like the United Nations, The World Bank and government undertakings.

Communication for Development (C4D) makes a difference to human development. C4D prioritizes communication systems and processes that enable people to deliberate and speak out on issues important to their own well-being. Its role in empowerment processes helps distinguish Communication for Development from other forms of communication, for example, corporate and internal communications, and makes it an essential part of programmes aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other development priorities in an equitable and sustainable manner. In the recent years, development mangers within seven United Nations agencies, programmes and funds: FAO, ILO, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and WHO adopted C4D approaches in promoting the core tenets of rights, equality and equity. The PGP participants with C4D elective course are expected to enter a dedicated career in development sector working with UN agencies as well as large number of international organizations like Red Cross, Action Aid, USAID, DfID etc.

The special course in Media and Entertainment Business is expected to prepare the participants in for a professional career in the field of entertainment and media exploiting the projected growth of the sector in coming years and the job opportunities available in the industry. Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Every segment across the industry (television, radio, advertisement, films, print) is getting digitized and creating a new domain that is termed as “New Media”. The Government policy of digitalization of cable television by 2014 is also expected to provide a boost to direct-to-home (DTH) and digital cable growth. The convergence of entertainment, information and telecommunication opened a new array of professional career for future managers who has an interest in the sector and understands the intricacies of doing business in this industry. It is expected that IIM Kashipur will produce a new line of managers who are strong in management side of business in general but specifically focused on E&M Industry.